I laugh, and this time I mean it. Shit! It actually feels good to laugh again. It feels so good that it takes me a while to stop. When I do, I go serious in an instant. “Because I’m one hell of a charming motherfucker, is that it? Because I have a deft touch? I’m great at winning people over.”
“I happen to have it on good authority that one of the human females likes you. One of the nurses. I’m not sure why, but hey.” Drake smirks.
“Likes me?” I frown. “How is that even possible?” I’m an asshole. I do what I need to do, and that’s it. I’ve made no effort to get to know anyone. The only person whose name I know is Sally, and that’s because she calls me all the time, coordinating my collections and hunt-downs.
“She’s into you,” Drake says. “Wants you really bad.” He smirks again and winks at me.
“That’s bullshit,” I snarl, my blood pressure starting to rise. “Even if it wasn’t, I’m not fucking some human for her keycard.”
“Did I say anything about fucking?”
“You insinuated it. I’m going to be very clear: it isn’t happening. I can get you samples. Break in. Spy. Whatever you need, but cozying up to some human for the sake of the job…” I shake my head. I’ve been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Hell, I burned the damned T-shirt.
“I need you to make friends with this human. Spend time with her.”
“Spend time with her? I’m not fucking her, and that’s final!” I growl, my hands closing into tight fists.
“You do know that you can spend time with a female without taking your clothes off? This assignment doesn’t require fucking, unless it’s—”
“No!” I snarl, my blood hitting melting point. I’m hot all over, my shirt tightening as my muscles bulge. “I don’t want anything to do with this female. There is more than one female working at the center. More than one with access to the vaccinations. What is her name? The one who supposedly likes me.”
“Wren Lewis. She’s one of the nurses.”
I scratch my chin.
“You really have no idea which one I’m talking about, do you?” Drake chuckles.
I shake my head.
“You’ve been working there for six months…nearly seven, and you don’t know the names of the nurses?” He sounds shocked. The fucker is still smiling.
“No,” I growl.
“They have name tags, you know?”
I shrug. “I don’t need to know their names to do my job,” I tell him. I huff out a breath. “I want to be involved. I want to help fix this, but I don’t think this Wren person is the right way to go about it. I’m sure I can get friendly…without fucking…” I growl, “with one of the others. I’m going to stay far away from her. I don’t need that kind of complication in my life.”
“I don’t mind how you go about it,” Drake says, shrugging. Of course he doesn’t mind. It’s not him being expected to fuck someone for their keycard. “You need an in. Then you’ll need to – with their help – swap out certain doses. Bring the ones you swap out to us for analysis. It will be very specific whose doses you swap, at least initially. Only those in the know will get the placebo. We need to test the theory, but I’m sure it will be as we suspect.” Drake looks over at Shadow, who nods.
“You will need to be able to trust the individual you make friends with,” Shadow tells me.
“That could take time.” I rub my chin again, the stubble catching. “Trust is earned.”
“Time is a luxury we don’t have. You are due for your next vaccination in less than a month. I’m due only two weeks after that. There are several key players due in the upcoming months. I don’t want any of us to get the actual vaccination, given what we know. Keep in mind that there are batch numbers and dose numbers. It’s all logged and recorded. That means the placebos would have to match the doses they replace exactly.”
“Which would take time.”
“Yes.” Drake nods. “Once you get us batch and dose numbers, we would need at least five days to get you exact replicas.”
“Which means I have three weeks to make friends with one of the nurses?”
“Yep,” Fury tells me.
“I’m afraid so,” Drake says. “If you can’t fully trust them, then you will need to use them, steal their keycard, and get them to do your bidding without them knowing about it.”
“Sounds easy.” Sarcasm is evident in my tone. “I can try, but I’m not sure I’ll pull that off with such a definite time limit. One thing is for sure: I don’t want to take one of their bullshit vaccinations.” I think of Kaine and his words to me earlier. Ithought he was a crackpot. Turns out these conspiracy theorists are right…at least some of the time.
“Be careful, because any one of them could be a spy. You know what happened with Jordyn. She had us all fooled.” Drake touches the side of my arm, and I step away.
